MOLLY BARTELS / Courier & Press
LEFT:
Construction continues on North Junior High school in Evansville on Tuesday. The school is set to open in fall 2011.

MOLLY BARTELS / Courier & Press
Workers build a wall Tuesday that will be part of the new North Junior High School gymnasium in Evansville. The school is set to open in fall 2011. It is the centerpiece of the $149 million bond issue approved in 2008.

BELOW:
Vince Bertram, superintendent of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp., delivers his State of Our Schools address to the Rotary Club of Evansville on Tuesday.

EVANSVILLE - Evansville's public school system is receiving national attention for its approach to improving schools, Superintendent Vincent Bertram told the Rotary Club of Evansville on Tuesday.

During his annual State of Our Schools address, Bertram said Dennis Van Roekel, the director of the National Education Association, praised the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. at the 2010 National Forum on Community Schools.

That event was held in Philadelphia, and Van Roekel also raised the possibility of visiting Evansville soon to tour local schools.

Bertram said the district has received praise for working with the Evansville Teachers Association on its "equity schools" project at Delware and Howard Roosa elementary schools and McGary Middle School.

Staffs at those schools were required to complete a training academy, and the schools — which traditionally have been low-performing — will have longer school years in the future.

"We have collective bargaining agreements," Bertram said. "We have constraints. But this shows what can happen when you sit down at a table and say, 'Let's figure this out.' What happens is that people come up with solutions."

Under the plan, students will attend those schools 20 extra days in the year. Teachers will stay five days beyond that.

Bertram said the training was a key component of the equity schools project.

"It's like opening a new assembly line in a factory but not providing people with training on how to do the work," he said.

Bertram said national education leaders have also shown an interest in EVSC's plan to open three new high school programs: the Randall Shepard Academy for Law and Social Justice; the New Tech Institute; and Early College High School, which will enable students to earn the equivalent of an associate's degree in a number of subjects.

After listening to the speech, Kent Stump, a director with the consulting firm Expense Reduction Analysts, praised Bertram for not shying from risks.

"We are trying new things," he said. "It's very encouraging. We feel like we are providing for our children."

Bertram said he is proud of recent innovation but doesn't seek to embrace novelty for its own sake.

"We need to be able to answer the question: 'Is it working?'" he said. "Are we achieving the intended results? Do we need to change course? Do we need to accelerate or slow down?"

Such questions will become even more important as EVSC continues to deal with a reduction in revenue from the state. The money coming from that important source fell 4.56 percent this year, he said.

Helping to make up the loss have been savings achieved by buying supplies in concert with local governments and other organizations.

School officials have also aimed to cut costs, bringing those for health care down by about 21 percent and for food by about 17 percent.

Partly because of such work, EVSC's rainy-day fund has gone from containing $66.84 to about $6.5 million, Bertram said.

All of that has helped the corporation avoid layoffs and cuts to programs.

Looking into the future, Bertram promised to keep fighting the status quo.

"But we also have to understand that six months from now, the status quo will be what we created," he said.

Meanwhile, Bertram said, construction continues on projects funded by the $149 million bond issue approved by Vanderburgh County voters in 2008.

The centerpiece project is the new North High School and junior high project on U.S. 41 and Baseline Road. Lodge, Glenwood, Lincoln and Cedar Hall schools are being expanded and are to become K-8.